Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Saud Al-Faisal, on a short visit to Cairo yesterday, was received by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, to whom he presented a message from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd Ibn Abdul Aziz. At a press conference afterwards, he said that this message comes in line with ongoing consultation regarding issues affecting the Arab world, and described the meeting with President Mubarak as fruitful, with the views of the two countries identical.

Responding to a question, Prince Saud said what is required of Iraq is an international, not a Saudi, demand, namely full implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions. Once implemented, the situation of Iraq will be completely resolved, including international normalization. In response to another question concerning an Arab motion for sanctions to be lifted from the Iraqi people, Prince Saud said there is agreement with Egypt on this, adding: “We are happy that the crisis between Iraq and the UN Security Council has been resolved by peaceful means. We hope that the next step will lead to implementation of the Security Council resolutions. If they are implemented, this will be the best way for lifting the sanctions from Iraq." He added: "We sympathize fully with the Iraqi people and with Iraqi suffering. Therefore, we call for speedy implementation of the Security Council resolutions so that the sanctions can be lifted." Prince Saud stated that he did not agree with the use of the term “deferred crisis” in respect of the agreement which has been reached between the UN and Iraq, saying: “I do not know from where this expression “postponed crisis” came. We hope that this agreement will be a beginning of the implementation of the Security Council resolutions. If this takes place, we consider the crisis to be over.”